3D PRINTING RESOURCES

3D Printing is an incredible space that's now expanding from industrial and commercial uses to new venues including schools and homes. There's much to learn and we'd like to help by collecting lists of the best resources on the web right here.

CAUTION: These lists are works in progress and are incomplete. If you'd like to suggest an addition or change to the list, feel free to contact us here. Thanks in advance for your help!

DO IT YOURSELF OPTIONS

It is possible to build a personal 3D printer from freely available open source plans using commonly available (and inexpensive) parts. Just be aware that while you'll save money using this approach, you'll need some level of mechanical and electronic building experience.

COMMERCIAL 3D PRINTERS

For serious commercial applications, including building prototype parts for manufacturing, envisioning architectural models or any large-scale use, you might consider investigating one of these big-time firms:

3D Systems - One of the largest companies in the space, with wide holdings in printers (incl. ZCorp), software and services

POPULAR 3D PRINT SERVICES

What? You can't afford your own 3D Printer? You need quality or materials not available on your 3D Printer? The answer is quite simple; use one of these 3D print services, who operate much like Kinko's. Send them your model (or select one from their repositories, if they offer one) and print it for cash. They'll ship the resulting object to you when it's finished.

COMMERCIAL 3D MODELING SOFTWARE

If you have the ability, you might consider creating your own 3D models for printing - but it takes quite a bit of skill, particularly for more interesting objects. These tools can help you do the modeling - if you have the cash to pay for them, and some are quite expensive.

FREE 3D MODELING SOFTWARE

If you have the ability, you might consider creating your own 3D models for printing - but it takes quite a bit of skill, particularly for more interesting objects. These tools can help you do the modeling - and they're free!

Thingiverse Open source 3D model repository, very active with new models appearing every hour

While there are many other 3D model repositories, virtually all are focused on rendering, not 3D printing and thus many 3D models found in those repositories will be unprintable - or even 2D flat models masquerading as 3D! When searching these repositories, please ensure your model is printable before you buy/build.

3D SCANNERS AND SCANNING SERVICES

If you can't design the right model, or cannot find something suitable to print in a repository, you might consider scanning a real object to capture its shape, which can then be converted (hopefully) into a 3D model suitable for printing.

3D PRINT MATERIAL AND ACCESSORIES

You might own a 3D Printer, but where do you get parts, print material and add-ons? There are many shops you can choose from. Recently some manufacturers have moved toward proprietary cartridges as the only valid material for their 3D printers. However, for source-agnostic 3D printers there are a great many sources of plastic filament, far too many to list here. Here are a few notable sources.

3DHacker - A multipurpose site offering parts, material, information and other good stuff

Fabbaloo is a daily online publication focusing on the 3D print and additive manufacturing industries. We provide deeper analysis of developments in current and future technologies as well as corporate matters. If there’s something happening in 3D technologies, especially FDM, SLA, SLS and Stereolithography, we’ll have an opinion about it.